This invention relates to an improved form of tire compaction apparatus, of the kind disclosed and claimed in my earlier co-pending allowed application.
The closest prior art known to the inventors for any process for unitizing or shipping tires which involves compression is a process utilizing a mechanism sold under the tradename of "Unitizer" by the Branard Division of the Sharon Steel Corporation, Charlotte, N.C. In this process, individual vertical columns or stacks of tires, that is, tires which are stacked around a single axis, are compressed approximately ten to twenty percent in height before being banded or shrink-wrapped to form unitized columnar stacks of tires for shipment.
It is believed that these particular tire packs are so treated in order to adapt the stacks to a uniform physical size for handling by automated machinery at customer plants.